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Otago Daily Times
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Roses add bright note to cooler temperatures
As I write this there is more and more that sense of things turning autumnal. The nights draw in ever more quickly, the mornings herald lawns wet with dew and temperatures have begun their slow nose dive towards winter. But there is hope, with today's collection of rose to brighten your mood. Around the country the new vintage crop of rose will all be picked and safely in the tank awaiting bottling, with the first of the 2025 wines perhaps only two to three months away from hitting the shelves. An early bellwether for what this harvest holds in store for us. For now though we can continue to enjoy the 2024s and the occasional '23. 2024 Emma by Trinity Hill Hawke's Bay RosePrice $34.99 Rating Excellent Hints of smoke, strawberry, watermelon, an earthy touch. Changes and evolves in the mouth with every sip, dried strawberry, a tangy hard candy side, savoury aspects, a little herb backdrop, softening and rounding out on the close. Nicely integrated, typically medium-weight, hits some different buttons. A wee touch of fruit sherbet now, deceptive carry, elegant. 2024 Main Divide North Canterbury RosePrice RRP $21.90 Rating Very Good to Excellent Bold nose, musky perfume, sweeter fruits on offer. Cherry ripe, boiled sweets, a basket of summer berries, like the nose this is quite bold and also bigger boned. There's a zesty undercurrent that keeps this fresh, balancing the rich creaminess. A wee touch of spritz on the palate now, generosity, heaps of user appeal in a glass. 2024 Penkridge Farm Central Otago Pinot Noir RosePrice RRP $32 Rating Excellent A finer expression, perfumed florality, stone fruits, quite elegant. The palate is more about red fruits, a fruit jelly note akin to Turkish delight dusted with icing sugar. Brimming with flavour, fruit sweetness balanced by good acidity that all gives a sense of balance and freshness. With air, a little touch of chewy grip appears on the close, adding texture. 2023 Trinity Hill Hawke's Bay RosePrice RRP $20 Rating Very Good to Excellent Pale onion skin colour that stands out in a lineup. Subtle but attractive nose with watermelon nuances. Hard candy on the palate, a tangy quality, with a little tannic grip; there's refreshing tartness on the close that would work very well with food. Nose expands to offer fruit sherbet and fruit jelly notes. Not hugely complex but actually very nice drinkability. 2024 Jules Taylor The Jules RosePrice RRP $26 Rating Very Good to Excellent Perfume, fruit sherbet notes, nectarine, stone fruits, berry fruits too. Nice volume to the nose. Continues those characters on the palate, adding dried strawberry to the mix; good flavour intensity and generosity that makes this eminently drinkable. The warm glow of the summer sun on the close, with the fruit to the fore on the finish. 2024 Quartz Reef Central Otago Pinot RosePrice RRP $36.50 Price Excellent A sense of volume apparent, perfume, the fruit woven through with savoury elements. Balance, integration the key here, adding some fruit jelly characters. A lively crunchiness to the texture that is rather engaging, displaying its structural backbone now. The close is long and appealingly dry; I suspect equally at home by itself or accompanying food.
Otago Daily Times
29-04-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Sauvignons to lead the way
The elephant in the room as I tasted these wines was the likelihood of the United States imposing tariffs on all our agricultural products. It is a nervous time for our wine exporters as the US is our biggest market for wine and was in fact our only export market to see growth last year. Some wineries will aim to shave back that cost increase to mitigate the final price on US shelves. Others will have little choice but to see that price increase passed on, hopeful the insatiable demand for our sauvignon blanc outweighs the price increase. Time will tell. 2024 Astrolabe Awatere Valley Sauvignon Blanc RRP $31 Price Rating Excellent to outstanding Bright, fresh, floral, a touch of passionfruit, ripe gooseberry, leafy herbs, wisps of pea pod, very classic. Wonderfully zesty palate, great concentration and depth, really tangy, fresh, structure here, almost a little stony aspect that adds a tingly quality. Firm in a good way with great length. With air the wine continues to be powerful and full of interest. 2021 Pegasus Bay Minuetto Sauvignon Semillon RRP $40 Price Rating Outstanding Powerful nose, fascinating expression, gunflint, citrus, smoke, oak influences, sweet pea, herbs, almost honeyed, wonderful complexity. Simply brimming over with flavour, matched with a creamy texture, lovely mouthfeel and great length. Beautiful balance, integration, with a line of acidity keeping this fresh. Far from your typical sauvignon blanc. 2024 Main Divide Sauvignon Blanc RRP $21.99 Price Rating Very good to excellent Attractive nose that is just what you'd expect for the variety. The palate steps it up with another layer of flavour; the gooseberry you might expect to see meets red capsicum and then orange zest. Fresh, crisp, nice generosity of flavour, and with good carry. Superfluous to say too much here as it's just so easy to sit back with a glass of this. 2024 Astrolabe Kēkerengū Coast Sauvignon Blanc RRP $38 Price Rating Very good to excellent Pea pod and asparagus nuances, an impression of sweet fruits, spice, a sense of development perhaps? The palate is rounder and more mellow in texture, light to medium-bodied in flavour intensity, some spice and herbal notes rejoining the fray on the close. A game of two halves for me — I love the nose, but the palate was having one of those grumpy days, a bit less giving. 2024 Rapaura Springs Bull Paddock Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc RRP $29.99 Price Rating Excellent Begins with a stony/ earthy quality, parting as gooseberry, then herbs come through. Perfume, dry honey, tomato leaf, even more fragrant with air. The palate melds classic sauvignon notes with fruit pastille and sweet licorice, richly textured, full of flavour, deceptive power, refreshing yet not strident acidity. A wine to make you think, holds your attention. 2022 Jules Taylor OTQ Sauvignon Blanc RRP $35 Price Rating Excellent If you're on the hunt for a "typical" sauvignon blanc, look elsewhere. Bready aspects, creamy butterscotch, a lightly herbal backdrop. Clotted cream and butterscotch lead, backed by chopped herbs, gooseberry and spice, quite supple, rounded, palate richness on a medium-intense frame. That creamy lactic note re-emerges on the close. Hits the food friendly button. 2024 Thirteen Forty Five Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc RRP $19.99 Air New Zealand Airpoints Price Rating Very good to excellent Treads the typical path of gooseberry, herb, wisps of feijoaperhaps. Nicely engaging. Thepalate is almost tingly, very bright andcrisp, the gooseberry and cut grass notes joined by flecks of citrus zest. Youthful, fresh, you can't go wrong with this. Very easy drinking. 2024 Riverby Estate Single Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc RRP $22 Price Rating Excellent Clearly youthful, initially perfumed with hints of fruit pastille, before the core of cut grass and herbal qualities comes through. Ripe fruits, hinting exotic. There's a lightness of being, certainly lovely flavour depth without any sense of heaviness. Cooling, refreshing with a touch of grip adding to the texture. Flavours more intense now, long carry, quite lovely.
